Environmental Sustainability

Programs

Courses

ECON 343: Economics of The Environment

Credits 3

An examination of the role that economic analysis plays in understanding the environment and the policy frameworks that economics offers in the area of environmental regulation. Topics include an analysis of market failures, the cost-benefit framework and strategies related to environmental policy. A number of applications related to domestic and international environmental issues discussed.

ENSU 120: Miller Farm Sustainable Agriculture

Credits 1
This course is a primarily student-taught experience that will lead participating students through the farming practices of Miller Farm. This is an opportunity for students to get their hands in the dirt and gain some practical gardening skills they can keep for their whole lives. This is also a launching pad for students to dive deeper into Miller Farm Projects and/or create a career in agriculture.

ENSU 141: Environment, Society and Sustainability

Credits 4
This course provides an introduction to environmental sustainability via an integrated approach linking social and natural sciences, with an emphasis on perspectives and methods from social sciences. Specific topics of focus: historical influences on environmental thought, systems thinking, water, food and agriculture, population, waste management, environmental policy, and urban planning.

ENSU 151: Environment, Science and Sustainability

Credits 4
This course provides an introduction to environmental sustainability via an integrated approach linking social and natural sciences, with an emphasis on perspectives and methods from natural sciences. Topics include: history of environmental sciences, carbon cycling and climate change, renewable/non-renewable resources, pollution and human health, land conservation/restoration, and human-wildlife conflict.

ENSU 205: American Literature & Ecology

Credits 4
A study of American environmental literature and its imaginative forms in relation to environmental philosophy, including changing ideas of nature and wilderness; representations of space and place; the deep ecology, ecofeminism and environmental justice movements; and the overall relation between human language and value and the non-human world. Attention also to cultural issues of ecology, such as how our ecological understandings affect our sense of identity and our social and economic practices. May include writers such as Thoreau, Abbey, Muir, Snyder, Aldo Leopold, Terry Tempest Williams, Leslie Marmon Silko and Mary Oliver.

ENSU 210: Outdoor and Environmental Education

Credits 3
This course will explore the history and theory of outdoor and environmental education, giving students a sense of the philosophical roots and influences that define the various methodologies. In addition to engaging with contemporary debates and issues, this course provides a foundation for students interested in a variety of teaching approaches, including both formal and informal educational contexts such as summer camps, museum studies, adventure-based learning and sustainability education.

ENSU 211: Permaculture & Collaborative Problem Solving

Credits 3
Permaculture design philosophy holds ethics of Earth care, people care and right sharing. This class will explore design with seasonal production gardening. Students will leave this class with a deeper understanding of natural patterns and how they can use them for agricultural, nutritional and social benefits in the future.

ENSU 244: Tourism of Japan & the Pacific

Credits 3
This course looks at Japan within the context of global processes and practices of tourism. Students will learn to employ social science perspectives to consider the political-economic, socio-cultural, and environmental implications of tourist practices both in Japan and in the wider Pacific region, particularly Hawaii.

ENSU 310: Application of GIS

Credits 4
This course is designed to provide a foundational knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its applications to the Social Sciences. Students in this course will use ArcGIS. The course will cover basic GIS concepts such as mapping, projections, geo-referencing and spatial analysis. It will be taught using a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on, interactive tutorials in the classroom. Students will constantly apply spatial analytical tools to address questions, solve problems and complete independent projects in and outside the classroom. Prerequisite: Sophomore or Junior standing.

ENSU 315: Engaging Audiences with Outreach and Interpretation

Credits 4
This course is designed for anyone who wants to lead educational programs for the public or school groups, particularly in settings outside of a classroom. It combines the theoretical foundations of the interpretive profession and the science of teaching and learning with practical skills in delivering quality educational programming for visitors to parks, museums, libraries and other cultural institutions. We will learn about the history, definition, and principles of interpretation; making your programs purposeful, enjoyable, relevant, organized, and thematic; using tangible objects to connect audiences to intangible ideas and universal concepts; audience evaluation; the science of how people learn; reflecting on your teaching practice; presentation and communication skills. Students will complete the requirements to become a Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association of Interpretation (official certification from the national board requires an additional fee, though students may also take the course without becoming certified). The course will involve highly active, hands-on learning, and field trips to informal education sites such as museums and nature centers.

ENSU 320: Pedagogies of Place

Credits 3
An introduction to environmental philosophy. Explores the formation of our relationship with the natural world and the roles of education and schooling. Concepts of nature, wilderness, ecology and environmentalism considered and critiqued in light of their functioning as "normative ideals" for a right relationship with the more than human world.

ENSU 322: Climate Policy & Energy Policy

Credits 3
Examines the basic causes of global weirding (e.g., industrialization, electrification, transportation), the key impacts of global weirding (e.g., water scarcity, extreme weather events, rising sea level), mitigation strategies in various sectors (e.g., food production, water systems, and urban planning), and prominent policy solutions (e.g., carbon tax, cap and trade system, feed-in-tariffs, renewable energy portfolios, clean energy research and development). Students will engage in an extended simulation that will investigate the political constraints to adopting various policy solutions.

ENSU 323: Environmental Ethics

Credits 3

Amidst the myriad local, regional and worldwide debates concerning what might be appropriate responses to environmental challenges, it is important for us, individually and collectively, to develop reasoned, ethical responses to these issues. By reading historical and contemporary texts, and by using media including film and other artworks, the class will explore different environmental topics from a variety of cultural perspectives.

ENSU 326: US Environmental & Natural Resource Policy

Credits 3
This course introduces the policy process in the context of the United States. Students will examine the major environmental and natural resource policies in the United States and consider challenges and opportunities related to environmental and natural resource policy.

ENSU 327: Urban Politics, Policy & Sustainability

Credits 3

By the end of the semester, students will have a solid grounding in the basic theories of urban planning. They also will gain an understanding of the historical development of the city, both globally and in America. In addition, they will learn about evolving structure for regional municipal governing. Finally, they will learn about urbanism's role as a solution to the climate crisis.

ENSU 341: Climate Change Impacts & Adaptation

Credits 3
This course investigates the impacts of climate change on ecosystems including the human systems they support, while exploring the actions that communities are taking to adapt to climate change. Student-centered discussions will center on real-world case studies and a systems-thinking lens through which to view these problems and consider solutions.

ENSU 343: Economics of The Environment

Credits 3

An examination of the role that economic analysis plays in understanding the environment and the policy frameworks that economics offers in the area of environmental regulation. Topics include an analysis of market failures, the cost-benefit framework and strategies related to environmental policy. A number of applications related to domestic and international environmental issues discussed. 

ENSU 345: Eco-Spirituality: Global Traditions

Credits 4
A course on the intersection of religion and ecology, focusing on (1) how diverse religious traditions understand and influence human relationships to the natural world; and (2) how responses to current ecological crises are informed and/or challenged by religious worldviews.

ENSU 353: Environmental Application

Credits 3
This course develops an interdisciplinary research “toolkit” with which to approach environmental problem solving. Students learn and practice using methods from the natural or social sciences that are commonly used in environmental careers, as well as interdisciplinary techniques. The course culminates with a student-directed, applied, interdisciplinary project.

ENSU 354: Topics in Peace and Justice in Literature

Credits 4

This course will explore representations of race, ethnicity, and nature in American literature—including literature written both by and about Native Americans, Whites, African Americans, and Latino/as—from the colonial period to the present day. In so doing, we will investigate the complex ways that race, ethnicity, and nature have intersected in American literary, social, and environmental history and the significance of that history for environmentalism and social and environmental justice today. Counts towards the major for the ENSU Environmental Justice and Culture track.

ENSU 363: Bioethics

Credits 4
Introduces students to the major theoretical discussions and practical actions in the field of bioethics, with a focus on the implications that these discourses and practices have for a diverse and multicultural world. Includes an introduction to essential bioethical terminology and to a breadth of ethical theories and perspectives. Specific topics covered may include: human subject research, genetic technologies, justice and health care allocation, end of life alternatives, and so on. Prerequisite: Second-year standing or above.

ENSU 372: Sustainability in the Anthropocene

Credits 4
This course engages with a variety of practices, understandings and discourses associated with sustainability, nature, the environment and the Anthropocene in our local community and academic work. The class will discuss ethics of community-based research, collaboratively formulate research questions and approaches for a final project investigating a community sustainability initiative.

ENSU 376: Power, Society and the Environment in East Asia

Credits 4
Political ecology is a set of scholarly inquiries and approaches that seeks to account for the ways in which power relationships inform, shape, interact with, and are expressed through ecological relationships. This course entails an examination of political ecologies in the East Asia region. The first part of the course introduces students to political ecology approaches to studying ecological systems, and the second part employs case studies from East Asia to examine how power functions in and through ecological systems.

ENSU 382: Topics Course

Credits 4
This class will examine some aspect of how genres (types of literature) and/or narratives work, including narrative forms, structures and other characteristics. this class may focus on a specific genre (e.g. detective novels, fantasy, Southern Gothic) and/or a type of narrative (e.g. folklore, postmodern, narratives addressed to children.) The course may be taken more than one time for credit when the topics are different. Prerequisite: 200-level English course or consent of instructor.

ENSU 395: Climate Change Ecology

Credits 3 4

Climate change has profound ecological consequences for life on earth. This course explores the implications of climate change across levels of biological organization from organisms through populations, communities, and ecosystems. Students will apply ecological theory to understand climate change responses, and will consider intersections with biodiversity conservation and environmental justice.

Note: Climate Change Ecology may also be taught as a 4-credit course, which includes a laboratory. 

ENSU 487: Senior Colloquium

Credits 1
The Senior Colloquium is a required part of the environmental sustainability senior capstone experience. The course includes starting to work on your senior comprehensive research paper; preliminary planning for the collaborative spring integrated research project; and career planning and preparation. Prerequisite: Senior standing in the major.

POLS 324: Energy Policy

Examine the energy crisis, investigating a broad range of technical and policy alternatives to solve the problem. Students will investigate basic energy science, peak oil, fossil fuel uses, energy efficiency, clean energy, smart grids, and the impacts of solving the energy crisis on our daily lives. Students will engage in a group project aimed at drafting a detailed policy brief assessing a specific energy problem. A.R.T.S. Designation: A. Also listed MGMT 324 & ENST 324